DIYbanter - View Single Post - Barn Neutral Saga Continues (Was Bizarre Electrical)

Bob F

wrote:
On Wed, 04 Nov 2015 17:08:07 -0600, dpb wrote:

On 11/04/2015 4:49 PM, dpb wrote:
...

Wind has gotten up and it's supposed to perhaps rain tomorrow so I
ran the lift back in...looks like next step is to do a resistance
check on that run but I'll have to get back up to the top to do
it...

Actually, as another mentioned earlier in the other thread, simplest
diagnostic here is probably to just run a temporary direct wire back
from the breaker box neutral to the connection at the weatherhed
bypassing the other box and existing wire altogether.

Yep, I said I did this when my garage neutral had a problem. Assuming
your meter pole is not too far away, get a piece of #12 wire (or
larger) and connect it to the neutral in the meter pole main box
neutral bar. Run it to the weatherhead cable on the barn. Wrap it
well around the support wire. Turn on the power and check if you now
have 120 - 0 - 120 using a few lightbilbs for a load. If it works,
you know the problem is between the meter pole and the weatherhead.
If not, connect that wire directly into the barn breaker box. If it
still dont work, you have a problem in that breaker box. You could
also run that wire from the barn weatherhead to the breaker box to
see if the problem is between the weatherhead and breaker box.

Of course this is only temporary and not for loads over 20A.

Sounds like a lot of trouble for a question that can be answered with a few
meter readings.